At $3.1 million Wichita State’s funds can’t even top Pitino’s salary

Carl Hall and Wichita State might not have a budget that reaches that of Deshaun Thomas and Ohio State; at $3.1 million, it doesn’t even touch Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s $3.9 million salary. But in the NCAA Tournament, the Shockers have proven that everything is equal on the hardwood.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Carl Hall and Wichita State might not have a budget that reaches that of Deshaun Thomas and Ohio State; at $3.1 million, it doesn’t even touch Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s $3.9 million salary. But in the NCAA Tournament, the Shockers have proven that everything is equal on the hardwood.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

The entire basketball program at Wichita State runs on what Louisville coach Rick Pitino makes in a single year, with money left over to purchase plenty of trophy cases for Final Four hardware.

In an NCAA Tournament driven by longshots and upsets, the Shockers are in many ways the oddball of the season’s final weekend: They don’t have a big-time football program like Syracuse, Michigan or the Cardinals, and they don’t belong to a major conference that enjoys a weighty television contract.

Instead, the Shockers run their basketball program on a budget of just $3.1 million, which accounts for everything from coach Gregg Marshall’s salary to a robust recruiting budget, all of the transportation to road games and everything else that comes with playing Division I sports.

Pitino, by comparison, makes $3.9 million in base salary alone.

But the fiscal disparity between the three big schools and a mid-major like Wichita State hardly will matter when the ball is tossed up Saturday night in the Georgia Dome and the Shockers take on the Cardinals for the right to play for the national championship.

Everything is equal when the teams step on the hardwood.

“Our administration gives us wonderful support,” Marshall said this week. “We fly on private planes every time we leave town. We have 10,500 fans at every game. It’s a great place to coach.”

That’s why Marshall has rebuffed every overture to leave.

The calls undoubtedly will pick up given what the Shockers have done this year, but the longtime coach of Winthrop has repeatedly said that it would take the perfect opportunity to pry him away.

For one thing, he has it pretty good at Wichita State.

The school’s robust aerospace engineering program, along with the National Institute for Aviation Research right on campus, means Marshall has plenty of private planes at his disposal – no flying in coach for this mid-major team. And that extends to recruiting, where Marshall’s able to cover more ground than most coaches by dictating when and where the wheels go up.

“They’re kind of like sports cars, instead of a school bus. They’re more like Ferraris and Jaguars. They go pretty fast,” Marshall said, joking about the fleet of private planes.

“That is a great benefit,” he said. “Our players don’t understand how good they have it, to go from bus to private plane to bus and in a couple hours be in our hotel.”

Then there’s the fact that the Shockers no longer have a football team – it was disbanded in the mid-1980s. The money that the Missouri Valley school once funneled into a losing program has for the better part of 30 years been directed toward the more successful basketball team.

“I think for schools within our conference, obviously football isn’t a moneymaker for them,” said Rege Klitzke, Wichita State’s senior associate athletic director for business operations. “If you compare ourselves to fellow conference schools, not having football is a big advantage.”

It’s also one of the reasons the school has been able to reward Marshall handsomely.

The coach signed a seven-year extension in 2011 that pushed his base salary to $900,000 and his total compensation to more than $1 million a year. And while it’s far short of what Pitino is making at Louisville, Marshall has a chance to bolster his bank account with a number of incentives. He’s already earned an additional $380,000 for making the Final Four and can pick up another $36,000 by making the title game and $200,000 for winning the school’s first national title.

“We have a great basketball program. We have tradition; we have history,” Marshall said. “It’s been a lot of great players; tremendous fan base; tremendous support. The administration loves it. We don’t have football – they don’t want football. They want us to be the best we can be.”

So far, the Shockers have been as good as anybody.

They’ve already won a school-record 30 games, and reached their first Final Four since the 1965 season. Along the way, the Shockers roughed up Pittsburgh, upset top-seeded Gonzaga, beat up La Salle and then knocked off second-seeded Ohio State – another big-budget school – in the regional finals.

They’ve proven that a 6-8 forward is just as tall at Wichita State as anywhere else, and a point guard who shoots 40 percent from beyond the 3-point line can do it regardless of the setting.

“Are there financial benefits to making the Final Four? Sure, we can go into that ad nauseam,” Wichita State athletic director Eric Sexton told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “But what this really represents is a great chance for our school to be seen on a national stage.”

And in a world where the bottom line is more pronounced than ever before – especially in college athletics – it’s virtually impossible to put a value on that kind of exposure.

“It’s a great ride, well-earned and deserved, and we’re not satisfied. We still have work to do,” Sexton said. “But it’s a great window into our athletic department, our university and even our state to be one of the final four teams playing.”

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino makes more than the whole budget for the Wichita State basketball program. But the fiscal disparity between the big school and the mid-major hardly will matter when the Shockers take on the Cardinals for the right to play for the national championship.

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino makes more than the whole budget for the Wichita State basketball program. But the fiscal disparity between the big school and the mid-major hardly will matter when the Shockers take on the Cardinals for the right to play for the national championship.

Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall has rebuffed every attempt to pry him away from the Shockers. “Our administration gives us wonderful support,” Marshall said this week. “We fly on private planes every time we leave town. We have 10,500 fans at every game. It’s a great place to coach.”

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall has rebuffed every attempt to pry him away from the Shockers. “Our administration gives us wonderful support,” Marshall said this week. “We fly on private planes every time we leave town. We have 10,500 fans at every game. It’s a great place to coach.”

Ware back on campus after bone surgery

John Sommers II/The Courier-Journal

Louisville guard Kevin Ware was released from an Indianapolis hospital Tuesday and is headed back to campus, two days after breaking his right leg during the Cardinals’ Final Four-clinching victory.

Ware had been at Methodist Hospital since sustaining the horrific injury Sunday during in the first half of Louisville’s 85-63 win over Duke in the Midwest Regional. He underwent surgery to repair compound fractures of the tibia in the leg and is expected to be out a year.

Ware tweeted Tuesday, “Back to my brothers I go,” along with a picture of him on crutches as he prepared to leave the hospital.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino has said Ware will travel with the team to Atlanta, but it wasn’t known if he will be cleared to fly.

Ware broke his leg after going up to block a shot and landing awkwardly. The injury devastated Pitino and Ware’s Louisville teammates, many of whom were seen crying after seeing the severity of the break.

With encouraging words from Ware, who told the team, “just go win the game,” the top-seeded Cardinals regrouped to win and earn their second consecutive Final Four berth.

Pitino and his son, Richard, spent Monday at the hospital with Ware, who was pictured holding the championship trophy in his bed. Ware later posted a comment on Facebook saying, “the first step is always the hardest one to take,” along with a photo of him on crutches.

On Monday, university President James Ramsey described the injury as “heartbreaking” and said Ware will get the best medical care and rehabilitation the university can offer.

Social media has exploded with discussion of Ware’s injury, resulting in words of support from around the country. Former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann, who also suffered a horrific leg injury on Monday Night Football in 1985 that ended his career, and Miami Heat stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were among those tweeting encouraging words.

On campus, a makeshift tribute was taped to a window in the Student Activities Center, and students filed by and lined up one by one to sign the 3-by-5 foot poster that said, ‘We Stand Behind You, Kevin! Get Well (No.)5!’”

Ware appreciated the support and said it boosted his mood. In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, he said, “It really brought my spirits up. ... And it’s kind of hard to keep your spirits up in a situation like this.”